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Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan

2023 to 2025

Improving self-service completion 15% and reducing calls 28%

Only 33% of the 5,000+ teachers who started their retirement application online each year finished it without calling for help. As Manager of UX and Creative, I led a cross-functional initiative to find the highest-impact opportunities to improve the online retirement journey.

Finding the real problems. I paired quantitative and qualitative sources: Google Analytics for abandonment patterns, Genesys call centre data for volumes by topic, a Qualtrics web intercept survey for feedback mid-experience, and the contact centre staff themselves. I interviewed staff, attended their team meetings, and embedded representatives in the project as subject matter experts. They explained the anxiety behind the numbers, the recurring questions, and the moments when members lost confidence and reached for the phone. That combination let us prioritize four problems with confidence: application abandonment, uncertainty about status, manual document follow-up, and anxiety during the waiting period.

Finding the real problems. I paired quantitative and qualitative sources: Google Analytics for abandonment patterns, Genesys call centre data for volumes by topic, a Qualtrics web intercept survey for feedback mid-experience, and the contact centre staff themselves. I interviewed staff, attended their team meetings, and embedded representatives in the project as subject matter experts. They explained the anxiety behind the numbers, the recurring questions, and the moments when members lost confidence and reached for the phone. That combination let us prioritize four problems with confidence: application abandonment, uncertainty about status, manual document follow-up, and anxiety during the waiting period.

Targeted changes to the experience. We added a readiness checklist ahead of the first step, progress trackers on the application and document uploader, and status emails at each stage of review. We replaced manual document chasing with automated reminders triggered by document and application status, personalized to each recipient: members with outstanding documents saw a section telling them exactly what was missing, while members with nothing outstanding saw reassurance that their application was under review. A new 4-part educational email series, timed between each member’s approval and first payment dates, proactively answered the questions members had been calling about during the wait.

Targeted changes to the experience. We added a readiness checklist ahead of the first step, progress trackers on the application and document uploader, and status emails at each stage of review. We replaced manual document chasing with automated reminders triggered by document and application status, personalized to each recipient: members with outstanding documents saw a section telling them exactly what was missing, while members with nothing outstanding saw reassurance that their application was under review. A new 4-part educational email series, timed between each member’s approval and first payment dates, proactively answered the questions members had been calling about during the wait.

Retirement Journey
Retirement Journey

End-to-end user journey

Measuring it credibly. I brought the analytics team in from the start. They helped us project the likely impact of each feature so we could sequence by value, then built Power BI dashboards combining Google Analytics data with call data so we could report on impact to both self-service and assisted-service metrics once retirement season closed.

Measuring it credibly. I brought the analytics team in from the start. They helped us project the likely impact of each feature so we could sequence by value, then built Power BI dashboards combining Google Analytics data with call data so we could report on impact to both self-service and assisted-service metrics once retirement season closed.

Results: in the retirement season following launch, online application completion rose 19% (45.7% up from 38.5%) and digital containment (retiring members who self-served online without calling for assistance) rose 15% (38% up from 33%). The initiative had had a lasting impact on both member experience and operational efficiency.

Results: in the retirement season following launch, online application completion rose 19% (45.7% up from 38.5%) and digital containment (retiring members who self-served online without calling for assistance) rose 15% (38% up from 33%). The initiative had had a lasting impact on both member experience and operational efficiency.

+15% Digital containment

Guidance and transparency increased member confidence in self-service

−28% Inbound calls

Automated status updates reduced reassurance-seeking

−23% Internal effort per application

Automated reminders replaced manual document follow-up

+74% Member logins

Educational emails drove digital engagement

Leading the team through it. I led this initiative while also leading an eight-person UX team, conducting performance reviews for six direct reports, and supporting the senior manager on hiring interviews, team training, budget reconciliation, and annual planning. Coordinating three product owners while coaching a team required deliberate distance: close enough to support, far enough to keep strategic priorities in focus.

Leading the team through it. I led this initiative while also leading an eight-person UX team, conducting performance reviews for six direct reports, and supporting the senior manager on hiring interviews, team training, budget reconciliation, and annual planning. Coordinating three product owners while coaching a team required deliberate distance: close enough to support, far enough to keep strategic priorities in focus.

Why this matters for Heart and Stroke: identifying journey opportunities from real data, defining KPIs, sequencing the work across teams, shipping it, and reporting the impact to senior stakeholders.

Google Analytics

Genesys

Power BI

Qualtrics

Qualtrics

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